Being a dual flagship from so many years ago the 7950GX2 was the first and a working dual graphics card with a pair of 7950GT card placed together physically by a pair of also SLI bridge and one of the first and the fastest card ever to be built in a dual platform and there it comes the 9 series with the first direct x 10 graphics card with also two physical graphics cards placed between a pair of SLI bridges. The XFX 9800GX2 can help in all of these situations. It features Dual DVI, SLI capability, HDMI output with HDMI certification for Hi-Definition gaming, 600MHz core clock speed, one gigabyte of 1000MHz (2000) GDDR3 memory and so much more. Will one card be able to handle the load imposed on a graphics card by many of today’s hottest Direct X 10 games or is it just a pipe dream gone terribly wrong? Let’s find out.
Well the XFX 9800GX2 is an old card for reasons and going to be replaced by the GTX295, being the same form factor and almost the same power consumption between the new GTX 295 and the older 9800GX2, but with some noticeable differences, first of all the external power connectors, they have removed the piece of metal blocking the way between the side facing eight pin and the six pin power connector and can be a hassle to uninstall the power connectors with ease ,well there is still some trouble in the new GTX 295 but have the same problem of space in both of the power connectors and the space given in the cooler sandwiched between the two PCB boards.
The stock cooling is barely audible in a quiet room. It does ramp up a little, but not enough to be heard in a closed case. Something to appreciate when the 9800GX2 is used in an HTPC. Why would you do that with the gaming performance of the card? Well let me ‘splain it Lucy. Imagine Call of Duty 4 gaming in Hi-Def on that brand new 60 inch plasma 1080i television
via the HDMI output, as well as watching all of your favorite movies in Hi-Definition to boot! A start to clear it up a little doesn’t it? Having two GX2s in SLI would offer just amazing performance. Whenever a new technology becomes available, the early adopters usually take the price hit to get the latest and greatest. At an MSRP of $649.99, the early adopters will bear the initial hurt but getting closer to availability at retailers (e-tailers) the price will be dropping closer to a $619.99 price point. Unfortunately, that is more than two 8800GTs, which offer slightly better performance in SLI mode. Power wise, this card does use more juice than an over clocked 8800GT SLI combo. I watched my Kilowatt meter and while running a decent over clock on the system, as well as the 9800GX2, the system pulled 54 more watts from the mains. A pretty substantial increase if I must say so myself. The GX2, as you can imagine, puts out quite a bit of heat. It may be that it is more concentrated because of the metal surround on the card, but the discharge temperatures are quite warm, hitting 55 Celsius.
Overall the card is old and aging big time but most can be better when you still have an existing 9800GX2 and just quad SLI it for better performance yields.
